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THE LEATHER OF THE UPHOLSTERY SIGHED WITH AN ALMOST HUMAN sound as I settled back against the seat A panel of black glass blocked our view of Barinthus It was like being in a black space capsule There was a cloth-wrapped bottle of wine in a silver bucket in a slasses sat in holesto be filled There was a small tray of crackers and what looked like caviar behind the wine

"Did you do this?" I asked

Galen shook his head "I wish 1 had, though I’d have known to leave out the caviar Peasant taste buds"

"You don’t like it either," I said

"But I’ave me his smile, the one that warmed me down to my socks Then the sed at ely I wanted to lass"

"And?" I said

He picked up the wine "And this was not here"

"You’re sure?" I asked

He nodded, sweeping the cloth aside enough to read the label on the wine He gave a lohistle "It’s from her private stock" He held the bottle carefully for me because it had been opened so it could breathe "Would you care to try soundy?"

I shookthat this car happened to put out for us Thanks anyway" I patted the car’s leather seat "No offense ift," Galen said

"An even better reason not to drink it," I said "Not until I find out what’s going on"

Galen looked at , and put the wine back in the bucket "Good point"

We settled back into the leather seats The silence see I always thought it was the car that was listening

The Black Coach is one of the objects ay, a life, of its own It was not created by any fey or ancient god that we knew of It has si us can re Of course, then it had been a black chariot pulled by four black horses The horses were not sidhe horses They didn’t sees of blackness with empty eye sockets that filled with leprous flame when they were hooked to the chariot

It was a coach-a coach and four-by the time I saw it One day, no one ree black coach had appeared Only the horses had reed when chariots were no longer in use It had updated itself

Then one night not even twenty years ago the Black Coach had vanished and the limo had appeared The horses never returned, but I’ve seen what passes for an engine under the hood of this thing I swear that it burns with the same sickly fire that filled those horses’ eyes The car doesn’t take gasoline I have no idea what it runs on, but I know that chariot or coach or car sometiht on business of its own The Black Coach had been a death portent, warning of i to be tales of a sinister black car sitting across froreen fire dancing along its surface, and then dooivein its oh-so-soft leather seats

I stared across the seats at Galen I held my hand out to him He smiled and wrapped his hand around mine "Missed you," he said

"Me, too"

He raised entle kiss across le I moved across the leather seats into the circle of his ar ainst the wonderful softness of the sweater, the firm swell of his chest underneath, and underneath that I could hear the beat of his heart like a thick clock

I sighed and cuddled against hi across his so that ere entwined "You always did cuddle better than anyone else I know," I said

"That’sin his voice that ?"

"You never told "

I sat up, his arm still across my shoulders, but the perfect comfort of a second before had been spoiled Spoiled with accusations, with probablyanyone, Galen, you know that If anyone had suspected that I was running away from the court, I’d have been stopped, or worse"

"Three years, Merry Three years of not knowing if you were dead or alive"

I started to slide out froainst him

"Please, Merry, just let me hold you, let me know you’re real"

I let him hold me, but it wasn’t comfortable now No one else would question why I had told no one, why I had contacted no one Barinthus, Gran, no one, no one but Galen There were times when I understood why my father had not chosen Galen for erous thing

I finally pulled away "Galen, you knohy I didn’t contact you"

He wouldn’t meet my eyes I touched his chin andemotion like a cup of water; you could see all the way to the bottom of Galen’s eyes He was miserably bad at court politics

"If the queen had suspected that you knehere I was, or anything about it, she would have tortured you"

He grasped ainst his face "I would never have betrayed you"

"I know that, and do you think I could have lived with the thought of you being tortured endlessly while I was safe so, so there would be no reason for her to question you"

"I don’t need you to protect me, Merry"

That made me smile "We protect each other"

He s between smiles "You’re the brains, and I’m the brawn"

I rose on my knees and kissed his forehead "How have you stayed out of trouble without me to counsel you?"

He wrapped his arainst the line of his body "With difficulty" He looked at ht we both agreed never to wear black"

"It looks good with the charcoal grey dress pants andjacket," I said

He rested his chin just above the swell of reen eyes wouldn’t letif I can, Galen If thatblack like most of the court, then I can do that" I sood in black"

"You do, indeed" Those honest eyes held the first stirrings of that old feeling

There’d been tension between us since I’d been old enough to realize what that strange feeling low in my body was But nobetween us Not physically, at least He, like so many others, was one of the queen’s Ravens, and thatthe Queen’s Guard had been the only smart political ically, and he wasn’t good at behind-the-scenes scheood arm, and the ability to make people smile I meant that about the ability He exuded cheer from his body like some women leave behind perfume It was a wonderful ability, but like ht As a member of the Queen’s Ravens he had a htly to a duel, because you never knew if the queen would take it as a personal insult If Galen had not been a guard he would probably have been dead long before I was born; yet the fact that he was a guard kept us eternally separated Alanting, never having I’d been furious withreement we’d ever had It took me years to see what ths are also his weaknesses Bless his little heart, but he was very close to being a political liability

Galen laid his cheek against the swell of ainst me It h

I traced ertip across the full soft mouth "Galen"

"Sshh," he said He lifted ht hs, staring down at hi so hard in my throat that it almost hurt

He lowered his hands slowly down the line of hs It reht Galenhih space between us that I wasn’t actually riding hiainsters sliding underneath ainst uards who believed that a little touch of flesh was better than nothing We’d always danced the razor’s edge with each other "It’s been a long time, Galen," I said

"Ten years since I could hold you like this," he said Seven years with Griffin, three years gone, and now Galen was trying to take up where we left off, as if nothing had changed

"Galen, I don’t think we should do this"

"Don’t think," he said He leaned in to ht him to me, and power breathed fro warmth

"Don’t, Galen" My voice sounded breathless, but I h to see o," I said

"What difference does that make?" he asked His hands had slid underthe ed hied me "Galen, no"

He looked at me, clearly puzzled "Why not?"

I wasn’t sure how to explain without hurting hiive ain, as she had when she’d given o back as they ith Galen, he would assume he would be the choice I loved him, I would probably always love him, but I couldn’t afford to make him my consort I needed soically Galen was not that person My consort would no longer have the protection of the queen once he left the Guard My threat was not enough to keep Galen safe, and his own threat was less, because he was less ruthless than I was The day Galen becaned his death warrant But I’d never be able to explain all that to hierous he was to rown up, and I was finally hter Some choices you make with your heart, some with your head, but when in doubt choose head over heart-it will keep you alive

I knelt over hi to move off his lap His arms locked behind my back He looked so hurt, so lost "You really mean it"

I nodded I watched his eyes try to make sense of it Finally he asked, "Why?"

I touched his face, brushed e of his curls "Oh, Galen"

His eyes held sorro the way they could hold happiness, or puzzle He was the world’s worst actor "A kiss, Merry, to welcome you home"

"We had a kiss in the airport," I said

No, a real kiss, just once more Please, Merry"

I should have said no, o, but I couldn’t I couldn’t say no to the look in his eyes, and truthfully if I was never going to let ain, I wanted a last kiss

He raised his face to mine, and I lowered my mouth to his His lips were so soft My hands found the curve of his face and cradled hihtly over ently so that I slid down the line of his body again This time he made sure there was no space between us I could feel hiainst ainst asp fro et rid of the gun? It’s digging into un is to take off the belt," I said, and s that the words didn’t

"I know," he said

I opened my mouth to say no, but that wasn’t what came out It was like a series of decisions: each time I should have said no, I should have stopped, and each ti leather seat with most of our clothes and all of our weapons scattered on the floor

My hands glided over the sreen hair trailed across his shoulder, curling across the dark skin of his nipple I traced my hand across the line of hair that ran down the center of his stomach to vanish into his pants I couldn’t re nothing butoffti

His pants were unzipped I caught a glie my hand down the front of his body I wanted it so badly that I could feel hi him

Neither of us had used power-it was just the feel of skin on skin, our bodies touching We’d gone further than this years ago But so I just couldn’t re my stomach He licked a thick wet line down my body I couldn’t think, and I needed to think

His tongue played along the edge ofit aside with his chin and rabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his face up, away from my body "No, Galen"

He spilled his hands up ers under the wire of my bra, lifted it, exposed my breasts "Say, yes, Merry, please say yes" He rolled his hands overthem

I couldn’t think, couldn’t re this "I can’t think," I said out loud

"Don’t think," Galen said He lowered his face to ently, licked the nipples

I put a hand on his chest and pushed his out behind hi We shouldn’t be doing this"